Paradox of US democracy

By Sun Xi

During Dec. 9-10, 2021, U.S. President Joe Biden held the virtual Summit for Democracy, together with representatives from 108 selected countries. The summit was intended to forge a common agenda to strengthen democratic institutions, but unfortunately it became paradoxical.

Democracy in the U.S. is mainly a political tool to satisfy its own political goals and interests, but not for the interests of the majority people that should be inherent in the core meaning of democracy. The U.S. has always flaunted itself to be the role model and best teacher for democracy, but ironically it may be one of the most authoritarian countries in the world.

History speaks for itself. The U.S. and its allies are responsible for military operations in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The U.S. will not hesitate to use brutal practices, including wars or invasions of other countries, under the name of democracy and human rights, but merely for the sake of the U.S.' political and economic interests. Even during this COVID-19 pandemic, some in the U.S. have been playing the political game of virus origin-tracing.

The U.S. has been constantly applying double standards on democracy and human rights issues. Brian Becker, the executive director of the “Act Now to Stop War and End Racism” coalition, said that America has often forcibly exported its democracy to other countries. The U.S. government has imposed its own political system and values on a number of others, regardless of the huge differences in terms of economic development level, history and culture. Clearly, such a compulsory sale of democracy is undemocratic.

The military interventions carried out by the U.S. government and its outsourced Private Military Companies (PMC) have created chaos, poverty and injustice in some recipient countries. In fact, the involvement of the U.S. military and its PMCs have been destructive and counterproductive to the fundamental principle of democracy.

Moreover, the U.S version of democracy only focuses on procedural aspects, but ignores the substance of democracy, namely the substantial involvement of the people. Procedural democracy is prone to become a manipulative political process because it makes the people only as “voters” who are only required to vote in the general elections every few years.

According to US democracy, people are not placed as the basis and goal of democracy. Democracy should not be interpreted narrowly as a political democracy that only relies on people's participation, which is carried out through a general election mechanism, but it should be implemented as an economic and social democracy that delivers real social welfare for the whole nation.

There is a profound contradiction in the USA-style democracy itself. Democracy should be the aspiration for the majority to achieve their hope of glory as human beings. Therefore, the substance of democracy must be in the form of economic prosperity, social justice, security and a decent life. History has proven that the representative democracy advocated by the USA only produces politicians who speak merely for their own interests.

The U.S. has been influencing the international community in the discourse of democracy. The U.S. is no longer the beacon of democracy, and it should try to prevent its own political decay before educating other countries.

Sun Xi, a 1980s China-born alumnus of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, is an independent commentary writer based in Singapore.